Prince Urbano Barberini, whose long line of ancestors includes Pope Urban VIII, says the 250-acre facility will be less than a mile from the remains of the huge palatial complex, which was built by the Roman emperor in the second century AD and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.

His campaign has now received backing from the head of Italy's Unesco committee, who said the country's reputation for looking after its matchless ancient Roman sites had already been damaged by a series of structural collapses at Pompeii, the city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD79.

"I express my strong concerns and my profound regret over the impact that the opening of the waste dump will have on Italy's international image, just a few months after the collapse of structures at Pompeii," said Giovanni Puglisi, the president of Italy's Unesco committee.

Rome's provincial government says the dump, to be built in a disused quarry, is needed because similar facilities are full or close to being full and has invoked emergency powers to overcome normal planning regulations.

Municipal trucks are expected to start unloading rubbish by the start of next year.

But the prince, whose full title is Prince Urbano Riario Sforza Barberini Colonna di Sciarra, is rallying local farmers and landowners as well as fellow actors in a last-ditch attempt to have the plan scrapped.

In a full page appeal to Italy's president in Corriere della Sera newspaper, a well-known actress, Franca Valeri, said: "You can't bury 2,000 years of history under tons of rubbish."

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